The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced that food delivery riders are also protected by the existing Labor Code of the Philippines or a contract.
The DOLE issued this notice to help set standards in defining the working relationship with delivery riders and digital platform companies due to the increasing demand in the delivery service sector.
According to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, delivery riders who can be considered employees of digital platform companies should also receive minimum benefits.
Those who are considered independent contractors, or freelancers, should be based on the content of their contracts or agreements with such companies.
Bello said the delivery rider and a digital platform company could determine an employer-employee relationship using the principle of “primacy of facts” through a so-called 4-fold test.
Under it, the method of employee selection, remuneration, power to dismiss the worker, and the power of the employer to discipline his employees are ascertained.
It will also determine the economic reality test and independent contractor test, job flexibility, working hours, and other factors.
DOLE: Delivery riders also protected by labor law
On the other hand, the independent contractor test means the “uniqueness” of the skills of independent contractors. Under it, the employer has no control over the way or approach they do in their work.
The DOLE says all delivery riders considered employees of a digital platform company should receive minimum standards and benefits.
These include the minimum wage, holiday pay, premium pay, overtime pay, night shift differential, service incentive leave, thirteenth-month pay, separation pay, and retirement pay.
They should also benefit from occupational safety and health standards, Social Security System, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG, and other benefits under existing labor laws.
In July 2020, Senator Lito Lapid filed a bill in the Senate that would penalize a customer’s repeated and unjustified cancellation of food and grocery deliveries.
Such cancellations force delivery drivers to shoulder the cost of the unclaimed goods.
Lapid authored Senate Bill 1677, which seeks to implement one month and one day up to six months jail time for a customer guilty of canceling orders at least thrice in a month.
The violator should also pay a fine not exceeding P100,000.
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